MikeyCampling

Archive for the ‘social networking’ Category

You may already have tested gmail’s new look.  Even so, it’s worth looking at their intro video:

The term ‘new look’ doesn’t really do it justice.  Google’s apps now function in a much friendlier way – they’ve made the mundane task of email more interesting and yes, I’m going to say it, more fun.

Integration is at the heart of these changes and that’s OK so long as it works – otherwise, users become frustrated and feel tied in.  For example, the more facebook crammed in content, the more it nagged me to click on things/people/apps and give away my data, the more I hated it.  Yesterday, I deleted my facebook account and it felt great.

It’s not that I’m a google groupie – I just like things that work properly.  Google’s relentless pace of development gives everyone a nudge forward, and that can’t be a bad thing.

The NetSetter blog is a fantastic source of advice and inspiration for anyone wishing to make money online.

It’s part of the envato group of websites, along with Freelance Switch – which I also enjoy following.

As an example, you may like to read this article on how to monetize* blog posts – short, clear and to the point advice.  You may not plan on taking up blogging in a big way, but even so, there’s advice here that could help you formulate a strategy for productive blogging as part of a marketing effort.

There are many blogs out there with long, rambling general pieces that make me lose the will to live – this piece from NetSetter is not one of those.

I’m desperately fighting the urge to say, ‘Check it out’ at this point, so I’ll stop there.

*Yes, I’m sorry for anyone on the UK who prefers to spell it ‘monetise’ but that’s what the article’s called.  Personally I’d prefer to say, ‘how to profit from blogging’ but there we are.

Proud to be a NetSetter

So which is better…

to tweet your blogs or blog your tweets?

And should you tweet and update your facebook status simultaneously with tweetdeck?

And what about your Linked In profile?  You can add your blog posts and your tweets to that – but what if they’re the same (see first point above)?

And what – horror of horrors – if you really don’t have that many interesting things to say?

Much is made of the marketing and communication possibilities of social networking, but you have to keep one foot in the real world.  Social networking can be a dreadful time-waster and it can be very hard to judge whether it has any real effect.  If my experience of using the internet has taught me anything, it’s that most people will click on just about anything – and then hit the back button.  Clicks and subscription numbers are no guarantee of success.

Sure, there have been carefully orchestrated campaigns that have successfully capitalised on these media – but we never hear about the countless number of efforts that have not amounted to anything.  I follow 6 tweeters.  When that number was only 2, I read everything.  Now, sadly, I hardly read any of them.

So by all means enjoy your social networking – I do.  But don’t let it take over your life.

And if you’ve got any thoughts about these ideas, then why not comment, subscribe to the RSS, follow the tweets, fan the facebook, digg it, stumbleupon it, link to it or, if you feel like it, just emit a hollow laugh.

Thanks for taking the time.